Wedgies

cross posted from penigma.blogspot.com:
Will Gay Marriage Lead to Any Other Kinds of Currently Prohibited Marriage?The conservatives who oppose gay marriage and who promoted the wedge issue of a constitutional gay marriage ban promote fear and intolerance, islamophobia and bigotry. Wedge issues allowed the fiscally irresponsible MN GOP to use government funds to try to turn out their voter base, when they could no longer afford to do so with party funds do to gross financial mismanagement.

They continue to bang on the same wedge issue drum, positing that same sex marriage, if and - more likely when - it becomes the law in Minnesota, will lead to child marriage, polygamy (multiple wives), or polyandry (multiple husbands), or polyamory (multiple wives AND/or husbands - essentially group marriage).

The reality is these fears are unjustified, not that it stops the promotion of these ludicrous ideas.

Gay marriage is legitimate because there is a similar pair bonding between individuals who are physically and psychologically not sexually oriented to heterosexual partners. These men and women form same-sex pair bonds that are comparable to heterosexual long-term partnerships as spouses. These spouses often are also parents, sharing as do heterosexual parents in the successful raising of children. Study after study shows that same sex parents are equally successful as heterosexual parents in raising children, and that two parents, either homosexual or heterosexual, are better for children than other forms of relationships, including couples who live similarly but without legal and social recognition.

What should have been obvious to the right after this and previous election cycles is that social norms evolve and change, and that women have a significant determining voting participation in such change.

Women are unlikely to vote for polygamy, polyandry or polyamory. As cultures and societies that have traditions of polygamy evolve, the actual practice, even where multiple wives are allowed by law, has been towards monogamy, away from polygamy.

In those nations which tend to be third world, child marriage is about social and political alliances and marriage as a form of property transfer. It is not about pedophilia, it is about cultures that provide for women and children differently, where women are not equal. In the west, in the U.S., women are far more equal - we are educated, we are part of the workforce, we are politically active at a rate that exceeds the voting participation of men.

It is highly improbable that anything OTHER than monogamy will ever become law in the U.S., so long as that majority and that participation rate is true. Unless there is some pressing reason or argument that can persuade women to vote in favor of any of those changes, which is highly unlikely, above and beyond persuading men this is desirable, it will never happen. I cannot posit any such reason, nor have I ever seen any such reason that is plausible argued by anyone else.

But it is typical that conservatives would take a derogatory position that tries to connect or equate same-sex marriage with other kinds of marriage, while ignoring the history of those relationships, both legal and social. It is sadly typical that the conservative extremists try to frighten people into fearing same sex marriage as a gateway relationship to child marriage or other relationships that might get one last gasp of agitation out of their base as a wedge issue.

Conservatives should reject that kind of stupid and manipulative argument, and properly should treat those who advance such crap with the disdain they deserve for fact-averse fear mongering and bigotry. Sadly, I've seen too much of that kind of behavior in the right wing blogosphere and the right wing fact-averse media bubble where they live to make up nonsense, and sell it to their adherents who appear incapable of independent thought or research. Shame on them for peddling crap; shame on them for embracing crap.